Games canceled for 25th BCPS Basketball Academy

Come January, there will be no exciting slate of high school boys and girls basketball games to help celebrate the 25th Baltimore City Public Schools’ Basketball Academy at Morgan State.

The typical three-day schedule of games, which was set for Jan. 28-30, is another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the mantra of the Academy since its inception is that it’s a twofold program and while the athletic portion will be put on hold for a year, the academic enrichment will still take place.

For the first time, the Academy will be reaching out to four middle schools in both Baltimore City and County, conducting four workshops on the following subjects: Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers, social media use, middle school college prep and behavioral health.

Dr. Warren Hayman, the Academy’s co-chair in charge of overseeing the academic portion, said the decision to provide the program to middle school student athletes instead of to high schoolaged kids is for “the chance to get them earlier.”

If schools are open at the end of January, the Academy will come to them with lunch provided and incentives for students to participate.

If schools are not open, concurrent virtual workshops will take place each day from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Because of the trying circumstances that have surrounded the pandemic, Dr. Hayman thinks this coming Academy is more important than ever to bring attention to the point it tries to make to the area’s student athletes.

“I think our program is unique and others have followed it because we have always emphasized academics and we try to get them to see the importance of it,” he said. “And it’s more critical now with the pandemic and all these uncertainties that one thing is for sure, if you have certain skills and certain problem-solving paradigms, then you can handle situations that come up unexpectedly like the pandemic.”

With support from its partners and sponsors, the Academy has awarded over $146,000 in scholarships to student athletes from Baltimore City and neighboring counties.

“Our job of raising the next generation of scholar athletes doesn’t stop because we’re in a pandemic. If anything, our kids need the Basketball Academy more than ever,” said Academy co-chair Bob Wade.